A FILM BY Maxence Stamatiadis

STARING Suzanne and Edouard MouradianCINEMATOGRAPHY Marine Atlan SOUND Benjamin Feuillade EDITING Elsa Jonquet

and Maxence Stamatiadis SOUND MIX Adam Wolny COLOUR GRADING Graziella Zanoni GRAPHICS Hugo Blanzat PRODUCERS Agathe Berman, Neïl Beloufa, Lucie Rego and Pauline Tran Van Lieu

2021 - 67’ - France - 16/9 - Dolby 5.1 - French - English subtitles

Agathe Berman Studio, Bad Manner’s and Hutong Productions PRESENT

CONTACT - FESTIVALS, SALES & PRESSOyster Films - Christina Demetriouoyster.films.info@gmail.com

THE DAY TODAY

SYNOPSIS 2024 in the suburbs of Paris. 88-year old Suzanne is a techno-logy addict. Glued to her screens, she shares kitten videos, learns about Bitcoin and devotes herself to the romance of reality TV. But none of that can fill the void of losing Edouard, her husband who died 10 years earlier. One day, Suzanne discovers a new app « The Day Today » which promises to bring loved ones back. Edouard returns, but he’s not quite the same man.

THE DAY TODAY is a film about love, mourning and time. I have been filming my grandparents for over 8 years because, in my opinion, they are characters straight out of fiction. Together they are a comedy duo: Suzanne’s vitality complementing Edouard’s stoï-cism, in a nearly burlesque way. They live above a forgotten highway; one of those places, and its inhabitants, rarely seen in films. Or at all for that matter. This environment says a lot about Suzanne and Edouard; they are humble people, second generation immigrants and also soft lunatics. But the thing that moves me the most about them is their mad love. A love so big that it even resists death, as Edouard passed away in 2013. If reality doesn’t allow Edouard to come back, cinema does. And so, in 2020, I started gathering the old film rushes, and using low-cost technology I was able to transform, stretch and reattach these images to invent a new story, where I can finally bring Edouard back to Suzanne. This science-fiction world doesn’t look like BLADE RUNNER or STAR WARS, instead it is a simple suburban sci-fi made of everyday ob-jects: apps, tablets and reality TV. THE DAY TODAY is about a future that we’re already living in, both wonderful and deceiving. But as imperfect as it is, it allows for a brief moment, maybe even less than a second, a small miracle to take place.

Maxence Stamatiadis

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

Maxence : Suzanne, can you describe your vision of love?

Suzanne : Being in love is like walking above the earth, like floating 10 cm above the ground, like a dream. It falls on your head and there’s nothing you can do about it. With Edouard, it happened to us at the National Celebration. I was 14 and he was 17. We danced together at the ball and then I went back to sleep at the house of my friend Hélène Berberian. We used to sleep in a big bed all together with her family. I remember whispering to Helene: «He’s so handsome, I think I love him.» And her mother was shouting: “Sleep now!” But I couldn’t sleep. I knew that I had met the man of my life.

And you, what is your vision of love?

M : I have always been in love. There are people who like the idea of loving, I think I am one of those. Being in love is part of who I am somehow. I can’t imagine living without being in love, I would be missing something. And that’s probably why it’s a feeling I like to film. What really touched me about your story with Edouard was that your love transcends everything, it even transcends death, since you keep talking to him all the time. Your love continues to live, which is something that I find very beautiful. When I was younger, seeing you two together forged my vision of love, this complementarity essential to living.

What did you think of the film?

S : Well, for me it wasn’t fiction. It was reality. I saw my husband, it was him, for real. I couldn’t imagine it any other way. And for me it

was a great happiness, something magical. Of course, there’s also a painful part because I realize how much I miss him, it made me cry a lot. But still, while watching the film, I was basically living it, I was in it, Edouard was alive, we were together. I remembered all the stupid things we used to do, laughing to myself. So to me it’s not fiction, it’s not science fiction, it’s not a robot. It’s just him.

Was this film a way for you to mourn your grandfather?

M : Definitely. I think there is nothing harder than losing a loved one, the brain cannot understand it. While making this film, I somehow extended the image of Edouard, seeing him on the editing timeline, distorting his image, slowing it down, making it bigger... his image became so present to me that it ended up transforming his absence into something else. It’s as if Edouard came back to me in a different way, in a peaceful way, and that’s what mourning is about.

Also, through the film we could mourn together, you and me. We spent a lot of time filming, talking about Edouard, staging the story. There’s definitely something a bit masochistic in staging this tragic event. It’s even maybe sadistic of me to ask you to reenact certain things. But at the same time, it’s also cathartic.

S : You used to spend a lot of time here with us, was it also a way of letting go of your childhood?

M : Yes for sure. The film started 8 years ago, I was 24, and in a way it followed my transition to adulthood. But it wasn’t so-mething that took me away from here or from you. The opposite, cinema brought me closer to here, to this highway you’re living above. It brought me back here by another way.

INTERVIEWMAXENCE X SUZANNE

How does it feel to work with your grandson?

S : For me it’s pure joy, because I adore you. I am amazed by every-thing you do. It is probably the distorted view of a grandmother who loves her grandson too much. But for me it’s a gift that you’d want to work with me. But actually it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. There are limits, and I don’t always agree, for example when you film me without make-up, dressed in rags to go to bed. Well, women are flir-tatious, I don’t want to show that image of me. But I tell myself that you have your deep reasons to do what you do and I trust you.

M : You look so natural on screen. How do you see acting?

S : But I don’t act! I live things for real. I can’t even imagine being an actress, it would be a lie. One has to be oneself. That’s how you make a good movie. You have to live the situations, to live the heart-break, to live the happiness, to live everything ...

M : I’m thinking of a specific scene, where you’re facing this couple working in a shop, who remind you of yourself and Edouard. We shot about ten takes, and each time you were real-ly overcome by emotion.

S : But of course! I was projecting onto them the love that I had li-ved. These shopkeepers, they were dull, they were not really special or interesting, but I wanted to instill in them this love that I had felt. I wanted to tell them how much we can be happy, how much we can love, how we can overcome anything...

M : But they were actors ...

S : I wasn’t. I was not an actress.

PRODUCERS STATEMENTS

We created Hutong Productions in 2018 to produce Maxence Sta-matiadis’ short film, PURINA N°1. Since then we are very happy to be able to accompany all his projects.

THE DAY TODAY contains everything that attracts us to Maxence’s cinematic style: rich documentary material, settings where every-day details sit alongside the dystopian, captivating characters, and a daring visual and narrative voice. The film is in dialogue with his previous works and extends a theme that is dear to him: that love is stronger than anything. Maxence builds his film through collaging different visual material and different genres, weaving documentary, fiction and even science-fiction with the same thread. A meticulous work that captures and rearranges time; halfway between a world in the making and a world that is disappearing.

Lucie Rego and Pauline Tran Van Lieu

One day Maxence Stamadiadis revealed that he was making movies thanks to two stars – Suzanne and Edouard Mouradian, his grandparents, genuine superheroes, who struggle with the big issues : love, exile, modernity, ghosts, space, objects, ideas, neighbors, family, habits, dreams, language. Movie after movie, Maxence pushes in his grandparents – late Edouard and shiny Suzanne –, reuniting the living and the ghosts, with his geeky, pop and cinephile touch. Being enthralled by the spell blending obsolescence and futurisme, we join forces with Lucie Rego and Pauline Tran Van Lieu – Hutong Productions and Neil Beloufa – Bad Manners – for the production of THE DAY TODAY, that weaves elements from Maxence’s previous films. Maxence persists with his heroic ancestors and we persist with Maxence, convinced of the relevance of this unbridled and warm piece.

Agathe Berman

Maxence Stamatiadis is a French-Greek director born in 1988 in Paris. He graduated from École nationale supérieure des Arts Dé-coratifs (ENSAD) in Paris in 2012. His short films have been selec-ted and awarded in festivals such as Locarno, IndieLisboa, Cler-mont-Ferrand, Thessaloniki and Valladolid, and presented as special screenings at the Cinémathèque Française in Paris. His other works include video installations that have been shown in art fairs such as the Salon de Montrouge. THE DAY TODAY is his first feature film.

2020 ABETTERSELF (30x2’)2019 SHIVER OF LOVE (23’)2018 PURINA N°1 (19’) 2017 PÉRIODE KILLER (50’) 2017 L’AMOUR A TOUT PRIS (11’)2016 KYMCO (16’)2016 DIAMANT EN PÉRIL (10’)

MAXENCE STAMATIADIS

FILMOGRAPHY

AGATHE BERMAN STUDIO

Agathe Berman has produced over fifty films as an associate of Les Films d’Ici and Legato Films. Her credits include productions by Cédric Klapisch, Richard Copans, Louise Hémon, Blanca Li, Gilles Bannier and Christophe Honoré, among others. As of 2018, with her company – Agathe Berman Studio – she focuses on her pitch expertise in the film industry – she is the pitch expert for the Series Mania Festival co-production forum - ; and she develops high pro-file documentaries, edgy fiction series, with directors such as Cy-ril Brody, Maxence Stamatiadis, Gisèle Vienne. Her productions are marked by a strong link to the performing and visual arts, with a pronounced taste for narrative sharpness. She teaches creative writing and maieutic in art foundation courses (Atelier de Sèvres-Paris). Graduated from the Polygram Fastlane Media programme (London, Los Angeles), mastered in linguistics and media language at La Sorbonne, she focuses on creation and transmission, assuming to be a «slasher”: producer/author/teacher/pitch expert.

FILMOGRAPHY

2022 THE ADJANI NOTEBOOKS | 52’ | Cyril Brody2021 CHINA ROSE | 52’ | Dina Khan2019 SHIVER OF LOVE | 19’ | Maxence Stamatiadis2019 SYMPHONY FOR A SUPERSTORE | 52’ | Gabrielle Schaaf2019 SET IN STONE | 52’ | Louise Hémon

HUTONG PRODUCTIONS

We started working together in 2015, in the Hutongs of Beijing, pro-moting French cinema and visual art for the French Embassy in China. Returning to France, we created our own production company in 2018 to support emerging international filmmakers in the making of their films, without limits of genre or format. The films we have developed have received support from French re-gional funds, CNC, the Fresnoy - Studio National des Arts Contem-porains, SCAM and SACEM. Our projects have been selected for FIDLab Marseille, Eurodoc, Pitching du Réel, Marrakech Atlas Workshops and Berlinale Talents, and our co-productions have been supported by international funds such as the Doha Film Institute, IDFA Bertha Fund and AFAC. The short films we have produced have been screened at the Cinémathèque française, the Salon d’art contemporain de Montrouge, DOKLeipzig, Leuven Film Festival, Curta Cinema Rio de Janeiro ISFF, Emile-Reynaud Prize, Thessalo-niki Documentary Festival and Filmfest Dresden, among others. ACTS OF LOVE by Isidore Bethel, our first feature-length documen-tary, launched its international career at Hot Docs Film Festival 2021. THE DAY TODAY by Maxence Stamatiadis will premiere at the Inter-national Film Festival Rotterdam 2021.

FILMOGRAPHY

2018 PURINA N°1 | 24’ | Maxence Stamatiadis 2018 INTENTIONAL SWEAT | 63’ | Chrystele Nicot2019 INSECTOPEDIA | 24’ | Antoine Fontaine2019 MACUMBA | 16’ | Jeanne Mayer2020 ALIEN TV | 10’ | Eléonore Geissler2021 THE LAST DEBATE | 16’ | Louise Hémon2021 ACTS OF LOVE | 70’ | Isidore Bethel and Francis Leplay

CONTACT - FESTIVALS, SALES & PRESSOyster Films - Christina Demetriou

oyster.films.info@gmail.com